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furnished with the ornaments of elegant learning, were there. no other proofs, might be without hesitation concluded from his great and immortal work, "The Essay on the Human Understanding;" in which, discarding all systematic theories, he has, from actual experience and observation, delineated the features, and described the operations of the human mind, with a degree of precision and minuteness, not to be found in Plato, Aristotle, or Des Cartes. After clearing the way by setting aside the whole doctrine of innate notions and principles, both speculative and practical, the author traces all ideas to two sources, sensation and reflection; treats at large of the nature of ideas, simple and complex; of the operation of the human understanding in forming, distinguishing, compounding, and associating them; of the manner in which words are applied as representations of ideas; of the difficulties and obstructions, in the search after truth, which arise from the imperfection of these signs; and of the nature, reality, kinds, degrees, casual hindrances, and necessary limits, of human knowledge.

To discuss at large the merits of this excellent work would require a distinct treatise. Suffice it to remark, that though several topics are treated of, which may be considered as episodical with respect to the main design; though many opinions which the author advances may admit of controversy; and though on some topics he may not have expressed himself with his usual perspicuity, and on others may be thought too verbose, the work is of inestimable value, as a history of the understanding, not compiled from former books, but written from materials collected by a long and attentive observation of what passes in the human mind. A small treatise, "On the Conduct of the Understanding," written by the same author, is a valuable supplement to his main work.

On the subject of logic, modern, times have produced many treatises, which, either for novelty of matter, for perspicuity of arrangement, or for a free rejection of Peripatetic trifles, might deserve notice. Among these we must not omit particularly to mention the system of logic published under the name of the Society of Port Royal, which is commonly ascribed to Arnaud; "The Art of Thinking,'

by Crousaz; and the logic of the illustrious Le Clerc; a writer, to whom the learned world is under great obligations for many excellent works in various branches of learning, and whose name would have merited a conspicuous place in a general history of literaturę,

SECT. II.

Of Modern Attempts to improve Moral and Political Philosophy.

SCARCELY had philosophy emerged out of the darkness. of barbarism, when learned men, tired of treading for ever the barren path of Scholastic controversy, began to visit the flowery and fertile fields of moral philosophy. Several of those writers, to whom the world is indebted for the revival of polite learning, wrote moral treatises after the manner of the ancients; among these were Petrarch, Verger, and Cardan.

55

But the first writer who treated the subject of ethics in the true Eclectic method, was Michael de Montaigne, a native of Perigord, in France, who was born in 1530, and lived till 1592. The first language which was taught him was the Latin; which he could speak fluently at six years of age, when he knew nothing of the French tongue. He received his scientific education in the college of Guyenne. Though addicted to pleasure, he early formed a habit of reflection, which made him master of much originality of thought and diction. The fruits of Montaigne's lucubrations are preserved in his "Essays;"56 consisting of miscellaneous observations, chiefly moral, written with great ingenuity and vivacity. Many of his reflections, it must be owned, have a tendency to encourage Scepticism; and sometimes he indulges a luxuriance of fancy and freedom of language, which grossly violates the rules of decorum ; but he must not be wholly excluded from the class of use

$5 Blount. Cens. p. 819. Teisser. Elog. t. iv. p. 167.

$6 Lond. 1723. Conf. Art. de Pens. I. iii. c. 20. Mallebranche de Inv. Ver. t. i. I. ii. c. 5. p. 271. Huct. de Reb. suis, p. 178. Fontevivan Apol. pro Mont. Hist. apud Ouv, des Savans, 1700.

ful moralists. Montaigne's Essays are not transcripts from former writers, but the genuine productions of a vigorous and cultivated mind; and it is a circumstance which renders them peculiarly interesting and valuable, that the writer, with perfect openness, discloses his own feelings, and describes the peculiarities of his own character. Montaigne died in 1592.

The footsteps of Montaigne were followed by Peter Charron, a native of Paris, who was born in 1541, and died in 1603. He wrote a treatise "On Wisdom;" a work which abounds with ingenious and original observations on moral topics, but gives a gloomy picture of human nature, and of society.

A valuable treatise "On Morals" was published at Leyden, in 1593, by Abraham Schultet, a divine of Heidelburg. It consists of two books; the former of which is "On a Virtuous Life," the latter, "On a Happy Life." The great merit of this work is, that it is free from the useless subtleties with which most of the writings of this period are encumbered.

The subsequent period abounds with moral writings of various kinds; among which we must mention, with peculiar distinction, Lord Bacon's Essays, which are full of judicious and useful observations on life and manners. To these may be added, the ethical writings of Placcius,59 a native of Lubeck, particularly his "Institutes of Mo ral Medicine," and his "Moral Philosophy."61 This writer was, if not the first, certainly among the first, who distinguished the science of ethics from that of jurisprudence, and attempted to assign each its proper limit. But these subjects were afterwards more fully and scientifically handled by Grotius and Puffendorf, whose eminent services, in this and other branches of science, entitle them to particular notice.

Groot, a native of Delft,
He gave early proofs of a

Hugo Grotius,62 or Hugo de in Holland, was born in 1583. superior genius, in the Latin verses which he wrote before

67 Bayle. 56 Reim. Hist. Lit, G. p. iv. p. 598. Frek. Theat. p. 424. 59 Fabricii Vita Placcii in Theatr. Pseudon. Leibn. Ep. vol. iv. p. 188. 61 Helmstadt. 1677.

69 Hamb. 1675.

Schudtii Vit. Grot. Francf. ad Mocn. 1722. Bayle. Niceron.

he was nine years old. At twelve years of age, he was admitted into the university of Leyden, where he made a rapid progress in theology, jurisprudence, mathematics, and other sciences. Under the celebrated Scaliger, he acquired much philological knowledge; and at fifteen, he published an edition of Capella, with notes, which obtained him the applause of the critics. In 1598, he accompanied the Dutch ambassador to France, where he became acquainted with many learned men, and was introduced to Henry IV. Though early engaged in civil affairs, he did not suffer them to interrupt his studies. He wrote a treatise "On the Freedom of the Seas," which gave his countrymen so high an opinion of his abilities, that, in the year 1615, they entrusted him with an embassy to the court of Great Britain, to settle a dispute concerning the right of fishing in the northern seas. This journey introduced him to the acquaintance of many learned Englishmen.

In the theological disputes between the Arminians and Calvinists, which so long distracted the United Provinces, Grotius publicly appeared on the side of the Arminians; and, with other friends to toleration, took such spirited measures to screen them from persecution, as inflamed the resentment of the opposite party; and, after a long struggle, which terminated in the decree of the synod of Dort, condemning the Arminian tenets, he was brought to trial, and received a sentence of confiscation of goods, and perpetual imprisonment. He was accordingly confined in the fortress of Louvestein, in South Holland. Conscious that his conduct had not merited such punishment, Grotius bore his confinement with great composure, and relieved the tediousness of solitude by literary labours; of which the principal were "A Latin Version of Stobæus," and an invaluable treatise "On the Truth of the Christian Religion." This latter work has been universally read and admired, and has been translated into eleven different languages.63

When Grotius was beginning to despair of regaining his liberty, he obtained an unexpected rescue by the meritorious ingenuity and heroism of his wife. During his whole

63 French, German, English, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Greek, Arabic, Persian, Indian, and Chinese.

confinement, which had now continued from May, 1619, to March, 1621, that excellent woman had endeavoured to devise means for her husband's escape. At last, she shut him up in a chest, in which books had been brought into his apartment, herself, in the mean time, remaining in the prison; and he was in this manner conveyed to the house of a friend at Goreum; whence, in the habit of a mason, with his rule and trowel, he escaped out of the town. Grotius, thus released by his wife (who was herself, upon her petition to the States-General, in a few days set at liberty) fled out of Holland into Brabant, and afterwards to Antwerp, where he remained some time in concealment. Through the interest of the French ambassador in Holland, and other friends, he at length settled in Paris, whither he was followed by his wife and children, and where he enjoyed the friendship of many eminent men, who assisted him in prosecuting his literary designs.

During this exile, Grotius, at the request of his learned friend Peiresc, undertook, and completed, his great work, De Jure Belli et Pacis, "On the Rights of War and Peace." His design, which extended beyond the limits of the title prefixed to the work, was to settle the grounds of the rights of men in civil society. The natural rights of men he founds upon the social principle in human nature; the rights of nations, upon the conventions of states. The doctrines which he advances, he supports by a connected train of reasonings deduced from acknowledged principles, and confirms by authorities from ancient writers, from the civil law, and from the Scholastics. His Eclectic spirit clearly appears, in the general maxim which he lays down concerning ancient systems; that, "as there never was any sect so enlightened as to see the whole truth, so there never was one so erroneous, as to be entirely destitute of truth." The work, which was first published at Paris, in 1625, soon engaged the universal attention of scholars and statesmen.64

After remaining eleven years in France, Grotius was, by Cardinal Richlieu, deprived of a pension which he had enjoyed during the greater part of the time; upon which

"Thomas Hist. Jur. Nat. p. 68. Groening. Bibl. Jur. Gent. p. 251. Bibl. Juris Imperant. p. 16.

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